I have deliberately waited for 10 years after my retirement from the Daily Times to publish my Memoirs because I wanted to give myself sufficient time for reflections. I joined the Daily Times in April 1941, as a “small boy”, on 5 shillings (50 kobo) a month, with destination unknown. By the grace of Allah, I retired asa “big boy” in 1976 – as the Managing Director, one of the highest paid executive positions in the country. But of much greater fame were the founding fathers, the illustrious Sir Adeyemo Alakija, and his British and Nigerian friends, who laid the foundation for the present state of the company’s advancement and whatever changes might take place in the future.
I am grateful to all those who inspired me, trained me, encouraged me, worked or co-operated with or assisted me throughout the years I served the Daily Times of Nigeria. I am immeasurably grateful to Cecil Hamsworth King, who was an instrument in the hands of Allah, as my “guardian angel. Let me make 7 statements of beliefs and 4 acknowledgements: (1) I believe that any life without religious faith is empty (2) I believe that leadership of a family, community or organisation imposes on the leader, great responsibility to lead an exemplary, disciplined life. (3) I believe that a leader should not say or do in private what he cannot own up in public.
Nothing is secret. (4) I believe that the price of progress can only be paid for in the currency of hard work. That is the motto of my life. (5) I believe that the sum total of the purpose of publishing a newspaper is to influence people’s minds and that means the exercise of enormous power and responsibility. (6) I believe in the freedom of the press within the limitation of just laws. (7) I believe that you cannot produce a daily newspaper as if you are operating a plebiscitarian democracy.
There are 4 persons who possess certain qualities that I admired in my early life and I aimed to combine such qualities with my own beliefs and inherent qualities. All these have influenced me in walking on the tight rope of my profession over many years. The first was my late father, Hamza Brimoh Jose whose high religious, moral and cultural values, influenced my life.
The second is Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, whose writings in the West African Pilot inspired me to choose journalism as a career and to resolve to become a great publisher like him. He also gave me the first opportunity on his newspaper-TIlE COMET.
The third is Mr Cecil King, former Chairman of the International Publishing Corporation in the United Kingdom who gave me the greatest opportunity; a great man, with great mind of great perception.
The fourth is Percy Charles Roberts, former Chairman of the Mirror Group of Newspapers in UK, who was at various times General Manager and Managing Director of the Daily Times from 1952 to 1960 – who brought his military and journalistic training to bear in his work – in particular his flair for detailed planning and strategy before starting any operation and his almost inexhaustible capacity for work.
Running a commercially successful and politically independent newspaper in a developing country, in a multi-ethnic society, with centrifugal forces always and almost permanently at work, means walking on a tight rope. I did not exercise my civic right to vote in any election throughout my employment on the Daily Times; lest it would be said that I voted for one party. The Daily Times was an independent newspaper and I said to myself I must be independent.
I always told my editorial colleagues that it is not the function of journalists in developing countries to be hypercritical of the government all the time. A good boxer fights in order to fight again. He does not fight to be killed. We are not in the Army and so we do not have to die for Nigeria. Rather, we must live for Nigeria.
To be able to do so, the Daily Times as an institution must survive the men in any government at any time. Our attitude throughout has been Militancy without Hostility. This means that the Daily Times should strongly criticize irregularities in government policies without being an enemy of the government. At the same time it should cheerfully raise and publicize commendable government activities.
To be in permanent opposition would be at its peril; because if any government decided to close the paper down for as long as it is in power, all the champions of American style of Press freedom will not fight; and all the angels swearing we were right, would not save us.
The journalists would get other jobs, possibly less remunerative, but the Daily Times would have died through foolhardiness that some less thoughtful men might call “courage. “
In all these years, I was the leader of a group of brilliant young journalists, all of us walking on a tight rope. My policy was that I had the power to remove anything from the paper because I had a duty to protect the interest of the share-holders and the staff. But I had no power to insist on inserting any news or comment in the paper, against the Editor’s wish; because Editors are responsible in law for the contents. This arrangement worked most satisfactorily.
It is true that over the years, I personified the paper and the company. I offer no apologies for that. Only a person without a sense of mission would lead a national institution like the Daily Times of Nigeria during such a historical period without his shadow being clearly visible on the walls. The fact, however, that the company and the newspapers continue to be successfully managed largely by men and women recruited and trained by me, is a measure of the corporate structure I left behind.
What is more, it was the will of God, that on March 23, 1984 – eight years after my retirement – I was requested by the Federal Military Government to advise on the re-organization of the Board and top management of the Daily Times of Nigeria and all my recommendations were accepted and implemented in May 1984.
Thank God by whose grace alone I was able to walk on the tight rope for more than three decades and alighted safely without any injury to my person or reputation.
For, to be the conscience of the Daily Times Group of newspapers for 18 years was the closest thing to walking on a tight rope, outside the circus. One has to balance between the ivory and the iron towers, occasionally risking a little spin round one foot and yet remaining firmly balanced on the rope.
-Culled from his Memoirs, Walking A Tight Rope! Power Play In Daily Times by Ismail Babatunde Jose, May 1980
